Passing over Graphium aurivillusi, which is known only from a few museum specimens, so that scientists are starting to think it was only a variant form of G. agamedes, we come to Graphium bathycles, the Dark Veined or Striped Jay. Neither this species nor a half-dozen species that look very similar to it seems to be very well known, which made the research...interesting.
Photo by Sl_liew. The color is an effect of the light; at different angles to the light the wings look black and white, or black and pale aqua. There are yellow or yellow-green and red, orange, or pink spots below. These contrasting spots distinguish the subspecies bathycles from the subspecies bathycloides. Subspecies tereus and capitolinus have also been identified as showing consistent differences from G.b. bathycles.
Another photo by Sl_Liew. This one is the subspecies bathycloides.
Photo by Dhfischer. Courting couple, or brothers standing at different angles to the light?
The wingspan is five to six centimetres, or two to two and a half inches, Like many swallowtails, they frequently sip water from shallow puddles. Nearly all photos of this species show it sipping water from a puddle, sometimes as part of a large mixed flock.
Photo by Stijn_de_wijn. Highlighting seems to indicate that the photographer knew this to be a mixed flock including some of the look-alike species.
The Veined Jay is yet another south Asian butterfly that resembles our Zebra Swallowtails, but is obviously a different species. For one thing. it lacks the long tails on the hind wings.
Graphium bathycles is easy to confuse with G. chironides; this web page discusses their differences.
Genetically they are very similar, and individuals found in the wild may be too close for even experts to call. Most recent sources list chironides as a separate species but some mention its having been once considered a subspecies of bathycles.
The species Graphium doson, G. eurypylus, G. evemon, and G. sarpedon also look almost exactly like bathycles so this monograph was written to explain how it's possible for experts to identify most, if not all, the individual butterflies of these species that they see. One reason why little is known about the life of this butterfly is that it takes an expert to be sure which of these species an individual belongs to.
Subspecies appear to have evolved toward one end or another of the species' overall genetic potential in different locales. Bathycles of one species or another are found on some, not all, of the islands south of Asia. On some islands, like Singapore, they are considered visitors, though it may be possible for visiting butterflies to lay eggs that will hatch in a place they have visited. This butterfly's youthful condition was presented as evidence that he must have hatched on Singapore; his wings would have been more worn if he'd flown in from another island.
What puts an animal into a separate genus has been debated and reconsidered a few times. This Graphium has also been listed with the genus names Arisbe, Eurypleana, Papilio, and Zetides.
Why bathycles? Bathycles was the name of a legendary sculptor in prehistoric Greece. Artefacts don't last long in warrior cultures, and the only piece of marble still believed to have been carved by Bathycles by Greek historians was an altar in a temple in what would later be called Turkey, but everyone agreed it was a good altar.
There is occasionally a published study that hints that the scientific study of butterflies may at times be fun. A Malay study determined that some Malay butterflies prefer bananas to watermelons, pineapples, guavas and various other fruits from which they may sip juice. Science now seems to lack something. Doesn't every butterfly species deserve a formal study in which students hang about in butterflies' territory, eating bananas, watermelons, and pineapples, throwing the scraps on the ground, and seeing which fruits the butterflies slurp up most eagerly? Considering the quality of students these days, I'd recommend that these studies need to be repeated annually, at all schools that are open in May, to observe the effects on the students. Fruits with thick rinds that keep out any poisons sprayed on the fruits, in the field or in storage, would need to be tested. One of my own very first observations of butterflies was that Zebra Swallowtails like fruit scraps. The Malay Graphiums, however, were not caught in traps baited with fruit scraps of any kind. Overripe bananas were found to be excellent bait for the Malay butterfly genus Mycalesis. Meanwhile, Graphium bathycles, which lives in and near forests, is known to pollinate lantana, bougainvillea, jasmine, abelia, and hibiscus flowers.
Caterpillars are said to eat a few different kinds of leaves, including chirimoya as well as plants in the laurel and magnolia families. Nobody seems to have posted a photograph of an egg, caterpillar, or pupa of this butterfly.
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